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Good Morning Egullet! I am so excited to have been asked to do a foodblog this week. I too, was sad to see Nina have to cut her's short, but am very excited to see it when it continues. So in the meantime, grab your cup of coffee or beverage of choice, sit down, relax and let me start the show.

First, I will introduce myself, since most of you don't know me. My name is Stephanie and I live with my boyfriend Mark and our two dogs and two cats in Sacramento, CA. The city of Sacramento is divided up into different areas or neighborhoods. My neighborhood can either be considered East Sacramento or Midtown. Here's our house. This neighborhood is great! All of the houses are from the 20's and probably even older than that. My house was built in 1922 and I guess they call these highwater bungalows. Here is the view from my porch, which was one of the teaser photos:To keep this food related, the water tower there is called the Alhambra Reservoir and it apparently holds 3 million gallons of water that supplies the neighborhood with drinking water. There are several of these in the greater Sacramento area. Here's a sort of recent article about the Reservoir, since you can see from this picture the edge of the "artwork" that was applied to the front of it, that is viewable from the freeway, not too far away. The article has a fuzzy picture of the art, so I will see if I can get a better one for you before the end of the week. I am also going to try to get a picture of the camouflage the article mentions, since it is sort of historical.

Also in this picture, to the left behind the trees, you'll see a brick building. When I bought this house a little over 3 years ago, that building was in the process of construction. Housed in it is an imaging/xray center. Come to find out from the previous owner of this house, that was slated to be a Trader Joes, and he was head of the neighborhood committee to fight against it, then he moves. I guess he was concerned about traffic, which is still a problem regardless. The best thing about this neighborhood though is that we are in walking distance to a Safeway, which is right behind that imaging center, several restaurants and several bars, which will be visited during this blog.

How I got into cooking? Well, I have been cooking for as long as I can remember. When I was 10, my mom came down with ALS..to make a long story short, as it progressed, she was unable to cook for my younger brother and myself. My dad had to travel alot for business, and so it was up to me to learn how to cook to feed the family. I also learned at a younger age than most people, to grocery shop, which next to going to Williams Sonoma or Target is my favorite type of shopping. So mom taught me several easy type of recipes; tacos, spaghetti, chicken and mushrooms, basic stuff. In college, I tried to enhance my skills, on a college budget and then things just grew from there.

Over the years, I have gone to different cooking classes or demonstrations, watched many hours of Food Network and just experimented on my own. Almost four years ago, I met Mark who loves to cook as well as being a hopeful chef one day. So we started cooking together a lot. Which leads us to why we are doing Atkins, which Insomniac, I think, guessed from the teaser photo:

We generally cook more at home than go out to eat. Well, the pounds starting packing on and his sister suggested we try Atkins. I know in my life, I have tried every crazy diet, except Atkins, in fact, a few years ago, I thought Atkins sounded crazy. We even tried the cabbage soup diet last year to no avail. So we said, what the hell, lets give it a try.

We started Atkins on July 2 of this year. To date, he has lost 40 pounds (damn men!) I have lost about 25. I will disclose this up front, we by no means are Atkins fanatics, because there are a lot of them out there. We also fudge a little here and there. I suppose if we followed the program to a T, I'd have lost more by this point. But overall, I am happy with the diet, I don't go hungry, I am seeing progress which is the most important part and I get to eat steak whenever I want!

So what's in store for this week? Well luckily, I am only working today and tomorrow. I am in pharmaceutical sales, so my day consists of traveling around and discussing drugs with doctors. So basically my blogging for the next two days will be in the mornings and evenings. Since we are trying to be really good on this diet and with Thanksgiving on the horizon, we'll be eating strict today, tomorrow and Wednesday. We do plan on some "cheats" although Mark calls them "treats" on Thursday, since it is Thanksgiving. Friday, we are going to go out with some foodie friends to a lunch at a new upscale restaurant and we'll also be going to visit some local wineries in the foothills. We'll have lots of cooking in all of this, lots of pet pictures and of course, after the fridge is cleaned up a little, the mandatory fridge shots.

I hope that you'll enjoy my blog, feel free to ask any questions about Low Carb food, food in general or anything else on your mind.

One of the hardest things about this low carb diet for me, is breakfast on a work day. Before this diet, my breakfast would consist of two diet cokes. I just don't like eating when I have to get up early in the morning. Weekends are another story. Breakfast on weekends usually ends up being brunch, and I am good with that. So since the good Dr. forbids anything with aspartame or caffeine, I haven't had a diet coke since probably July 4th. This is good and bad. Diet coke reved me up everyday. So what's a girl to do? Well, I have discovered this sort of does the trick:

But they do recommend taking with food. Since I started the blog this morning, Mark did offer to make me some scrambled eggs (his are truly the best), but I am running out of time, so maybe tomorrow I can con him into making them for me. I usually will make something on Sunday that I can reheat during the week. For example, I have made a crustless quiche that is very good. Sometimes I'll make the ever famous, Atkins Revolution Rolls, which are a mixture of eggs and cream cheese and then you bake them. I'll reheat them and slather with butter (Atkins legal) and a packet of splenda and cinnamon. I've made crepes before using a low carb bake mix and do the same thing with them. This week, I wasn't organized and with a funny week, I didn't want stuff to go to waste. So what's today's breakfast?

Exciting huh? Actually not really, this string cheese that we got from Costco is different tasting than the Precious brand. I actually don't care for it, and will probably end up giving most of it to the dogs. But time is short and I gotta eat something, get ready for work and head out the door. I will promise you this...lunch today is going to be the ever famous "In and Out" Burger..Just for you guys..I will have a double double protein style and a glass of water for $3.07. You can probably tell I've had this before. There will be pictures so stay tuned. See you all when I get home today!

I'm excited, I love your Pics on Dinner what did we cook!
your house is cute. I have a littler type house myself.
I try to eat Atkins too, and I also have dropped about forty pounds, but go easy on yourself, it took me almost a year.

... Here's our house. This neighborhood is great! All of the houses are from the 20's and probably even older than that. My house was built in 1922 and I guess they call these highwater bungalows. ... The article has a fuzzy picture of the art, so I will see if I can get a better one for you before the end of the week. I am also going to try to get a picture of the camouflage the article mentions, since it is sort of historical.

Greetings from one Valley Girl to another! I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley, which is the bottom half of that grand Central Valley you live in, and your photos look a lot like "home". Tell me, do you live close to the river? That architecture, with its evocative name, suggests that you do. Flooding used to be a huge issue, up and down the valleys, and your house predates the aggressive dam building that changed the state's water flows.

What crops do you especially like to get locally, if any? If there are farmers' markets still going this late in the year, I'd love to see what's growing there now. Are there local fruits that you don't do because of Atkins?

And yes, please do post better photos of the water tower! And the local markets!

I'm excited, I love your Pics on Dinner what did we cook!your house is cute. I have a littler type house myself.I try to eat Atkins too, and I also have dropped about forty pounds, but go easy on yourself, it took me almost a year.

Christine..Thank you so much. It was funny, tonight, someone I see every week mentioned something about me losing weight and I said that she was really the first person to mention it. I think that when people see you have lost weight, they are afraid to say something to you, thinking that they might offend you. The way I look at it, and I haven't been shy about mentioning that I am on a special diet, it's great encouragement. So thank you for your words.

Yay! I can't wait to to see what you cook up, and the pictures of California. I miss northern California. What a beautiful house and weather!

Thank you so much.. I hope to do it justice this week.

... Here's our house. This neighborhood is great! All of the houses are from the 20's and probably even older than that. My house was built in 1922 and I guess they call these highwater bungalows. ... The article has a fuzzy picture of the art, so I will see if I can get a better one for you before the end of the week. I am also going to try to get a picture of the camouflage the article mentions, since it is sort of historical.

Greetings from one Valley Girl to another! I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley, which is the bottom half of that grand Central Valley you live in, and your photos look a lot like "home". Tell me, do you live close to the river? That architecture, with its evocative name, suggests that you do. Flooding used to be a huge issue, up and down the valleys, and your house predates the aggressive dam building that changed the state's water flows.

What crops do you especially like to get locally, if any? If there are farmers' markets still going this late in the year, I'd love to see what's growing there now. Are there local fruits that you don't do because of Atkins?

And yes, please do post better photos of the water tower! And the local markets!

Thanks for the message. I think that these houses are highwater bungalows due to the proximaty of the rivers. The Sacramento river and the American river are very close, and the levees haven't been in the greatest of shapes lately. Over the last few years, they have shored and fixed them, so, in fact, I am not required to carry flood insurance, but do have a preferential policy that is recommended. They say that Sacramento is in worse shape than New Orleans, but please cross your fingers, nothing has gone wrong yet. A couple of months after I lived here, we did have a really hard rain storm for about 1 hour that flooded the streets. If I can find the pictures on the other computer, I'll post them, otherwise, we did have a basement flood a couple of years back, and this year is too early to tell, the rain hasn't really come in yet.

If I can get to the one decent farmer's market this Sunday, I'll certaintly go and totally document for you. As for fruits, before Atkins, I never ate a ton, I am more a veggie girl. Soon (which I will go into further), we can have berries. Really, I miss potatoes, they have been my friend since birth, and I really miss them. Thanks again for the post.

Woo-hoo! A local blog!

I hope I do the area justice! I know you've done some great blogs here.

Hello everyone....Thanks so much for all the replies... I really hope to make this a fun blog for you all to follow along. Okay, so I promised In and Out burger for lunch. Here we go:

For those of you not familiar with In and out....it is a simple family chain that has been in business for a long time. They keep their menu simple:

They are so polite that they don't want you to spill on yourself...so they give you a placemat to eat in your car:

Here is the double double portein style:

Now if you haven't heard of the In and Out Burger they are wonderful with a not so secret menu to order from, there it is. The nice thing that fast food places of have done is to give you the carb count on foods that you can customize. The double double protein style is from what I can figure 11 grams of carbs.

Since I work in my car, I like to eat in my car unless I am going out to lunch with a client or co-worker. I either like to listen to talk radio or read. This week's reading material is:

After work, I went to this really great grocery store to get stuff for tomorrow's dinner (Chili) since I will be at a late meeting. My friend is going to come over for Nip/Tuck, which is quite trashy, but great. Mark has agreed to making the chili. I really wanted to take pics inside the store, since really, this is a great store. I got an outside shot:

But when I asked if I could take photos inside, it was this whole corporate blah blah thing..which I figured it wouldn't be worth it, since I won't get back there any time this week. They have a wonderful cheese selection, meat selection, wine section, deli section. They also make this fabulous sausage that will be featured in tomorrow night's dinner.

Then I got a call that Friday's upscale restaurant lunch will be cancelled since they are not going to be open for lunch..So I had to consult my foodie friend, who happens to be a bartender at my favorite around the corner dive bar, to see what he wanted to do. So while in Rome.....

Here is a no carb cocktail....a Citron Vodka and Club Soda...

Mark showed up a little bit later and wanted his no carb cocktail showcased:

it's a scotch and soda.

Disclaimer:: Atkins does not advocate drinking alcoholic beverages until you reach the appropriate rung that allows it. Like I said, if we followed it to a T, we'd be the skinniest people on earth right now.

Here is the outside of our favorite dive bar:

And the reason we like this place? Well, they cash personal checks for regulars, they have food on Sunday and Monday Football, they have an annual Christmas party, Cheap drinks and friendly folks like this:

Also, they have a black and white picture of the water tower, when it was painted during the WW2 war. It's not the best, since I was taking a picture of a picture, but you get the gist:

So today, I also visited my mailbox place. And apparently my credit card has been busy, since most of my wine clubs have decided it's time to ship. So I got four wine shipments. And to introduce our first cast of characters: Peabody, who is also sometimes known as assbody (for knocking over glasses of water whenever he feels like it) Sweet Pea (for being a loving sweet cat when he wants to be) or Antisocial body (for when we have parties.. and he runs away from everyone) among other names. He also likes to taste wine....not a lot. But the funny thing is that last night, I opened a bottle of wine that I liked and gave him a finger, he licked once and then walked away...Mark had a different opened wine and he loved it. So you may see Peabody come back with his wine recommendations throughout this blog....he's turned out to be a total snob.

Here are two more cast of characters: Lucy and Pickles. Lucy is a 5 year old lab retreiver.....She makes up for smarts in her beauty..I'll get a better picture of her later. Here she is at dinner, very typical of any meal with Mr. Pickles standing by her side to clean up what ever a Lab might leave behind. He is seriously lucky that Lucy doesn't care, because she just lets him sit there:

Peabody (named, of course, for the ultra-swanky hotel of Memphis fame in my Youth, and where all of us Delta girls aspired to be taken to dinner on dates) is a perfect gentleman. I've been known to run myself, when too many loud people show up at the door. It's just that pesky bed is just so LOW to get under any more.

And LOVE your Pickles!!! I crave a Marmalady cat, so I can name her Cornbread.

Fairy tea has its own magic, for it never does run out;And the flavour you imagine will come streaming from the spout.Fairy Tea

Good Morning..Hope you all had a better night's sleep than I did. I woke up at 4am and then proceeded to have Mr. Pickles and Peabody running a marathon race, that centered around the bed. Then I locked them out of the room and they, well, lets face it, Mr. Pickles, was trying to open the door, because he felt that it was necessary to feed him right at that moment. I ended up relenting, since I wanted to get a couple minutes of quiet. Of course now they are sound asleep.

So what would a Low Carb blog be without some steak? Last night Mark whipped us up some delicious steaks that he cooked perfectly on the grill pan in the house. We still need to fill the propane tank one of these days, so we stop setting the house alarm off with the smoke. On top of the steak, he put some beurre rouge that he made a while back from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles. Along side of the steak, he made twice baked "fauxtatoes". Before Atkins, a few years ago, I tried the South Beach Diet. They claimed that if you cook cauliflower, it can taste like potatoes. I did, and they sucked big time. If I remember correctly, South Beach is not as liberal with the butter, which is probably why they sucked. Now, for some reason, cauliflower when it is cooked with butter they taste much better. For this recipe we used a bag of frozen cauliflower, cooked it in a little water, then kind of mashed it. Mixed it with 6 tbsp butter and 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Put it in a 8x8 baking dish and covered it with cheese. Baked at 375 until it starts to brown and when it was done garnished it with bacon, chives, sour cream, salt and pepper.

It was pretty damn good, he did a good job. Carb count for this meal; the steak is free, the butter is free, but we should add probably 2 for the shallots. The cauliflower is probably 2 for the veggie (for the amount that I ate) .5 for the cheese, 1 for the sour cream and to be safe we'll say 1 more for anything I may have forgotten. So total for dinner (excluding wine) is 6.5 grams. Which leaves my day for a total of 18 grams of carbs for the day (excluding wine). I probably had two glasses of wine so that would be probably another 10 to be safe. Here is the wine we had, it came in one of the shipments:

As for counting carbs..we used to write down everything we ate for the first month, since we were getting used to the program. Now we just kind of guestimate where we're at. Which could be another explanation why I am not losing it as fast, but again, it is still working. When you start atkins, you start on Induction, which is limiting your carbs to 20 grams a day or less. You'd be surprised how many carbs are in different foods. Even Cooking Light says that for a woman, the daily intake of carbs should be about 300-400 grams a day. After eating this way for several months taking in that many carbs seems like suicide.

So you stay on Induction for 2 weeks to get used to eating this way and then after that, you can either stay on Extended Induction or go to the Ongoing Weight Loss plan. With the Ongoing, you add 5 grams of carbs per day for a week. These should be in the form of veggies, etc. Then they have these rungs that you can move up where after a week, you then add another five and it can be something like Berries, then the next week you can add another five, and it can be nuts. Eventually, as you move through ongoing you keep adding different things to see if it affects the weight loss. To be honest, I don't know what rung I am on. I generally try to keep the carbs at about 20-25 grams per day. That is why I say that we aren't fanatics about this diet. There are tons of message boards out there that would totally discredit how we do this. But for now, it seems to be working for us. I will say though, that this diet does not make you go hungry. I guess the theory is that you eat more fats, that fill you up faster. Since the body burns glucose and carbs for energy, when you restrict the intake, it burns the fat instead, in what they call ketosis. We do check our ketones using the little strips that you pee on, telling you if ketones are present. This is a good way to measure if something you ate knocks you out of ketosis, therefore you're not burning fat. Like the piece of cake that I had a bridal shower not too long ago, didn't help matters.

If anyone has any more questions on the low carb stuff that I was just talking about, feel free to ask, I don't want to bore the readers with a bunch of technical stuff.

So we did unpack the wine shipment and here is what we got:

Broken down:

The folks at Cakebread sent a 2005 Zinfandel

Mt. Aukum, which is up in the Plymouth area sent a 2004 Sierra Moon Syrah and a 2005 Syrah from Fair Play. Apparently, the Fair Play was last year's big award winner, it won the Best Red Wine of the Region at the California State Fair. This is a little gem of a winery that we came upon a couple of years ago. Every year we do the El Dorado Passport Weekend, where we go up to El Dorado county and you tour the wineries, they have food and entertainment. This place was the last place we went to, and they have some remarkable stuff. We make sure to go every time now. They are situated high on a hill, overlooking the valley. Very pretty.

Rubicon sent a bunch of stuff:

What we have here is 2005 Edizione Pennino Zinfandel, 2004 Captains Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006 Captains Reserve Pinot Noir. They also sent a very pretty leaf paperweight type thing as a gift. A funny story about our Rubicon wines. A little over a year ago, I got a shipment, opened it and decided to open up a bottle, without reading the literature. Mark and I tasted it and really didn't say anything to each other. Next day, we're talking and I said that wine was awful, and he agreed. Well, when I went to read the literature, it said that it hadn't been released yet and to wait at least 2-4 months before opening. It was a $65 bottle of wine. So from that point, when I get these high end wines, I label them with when I received them, how much they are, and when they should be drank..so we don't chose a $60 bottle of wine after a couple have been consumed, if you know what I am saying.

Lastly, another local winery, Lava Cap, sent three bottles. The Barbera that we had with dinner, this one here:

and a Sauvignon Blanc that didn't make it into the picture.

Well, I am going to see if Mark is going to get up and make me some scrambled eggs while I get ready for work. Today, lunch will either be this cheesesteak place that I want to show you all if I eat alone, or I may be joining a co-worker for lunch somewhere, and she usually likes this Moroccan Place that is actually around the corner, so we will see. I am also going to grocery shop for some stuff that we'll be making tomorrow for Thanksgiving. Today, Mark will document his chili making process, and that will be dinner tonight with my friend who will come over to watch Nip Tuck. Have a great day and I will see you guys later on!

Peabody (named, of course, for the ultra-swanky hotel of Memphis fame in my Youth, and where all of us Delta girls aspired to be taken to dinner on dates) is a perfect gentleman. I've been known to run myself, when too many loud people show up at the door. It's just that pesky bed is just so LOW to get under any more.

And LOVE your Pickles!!! I crave a Marmalady cat, so I can name her Cornbread.

Rachel, Thanks for the message. Yes, Peabody is a gentleman for the most part. We always tell him he looks Dapper. Cornbread would be a cute name for an orange cat. Mr. Pickles was actually named after a sandwich shop that is here locally. I had a sandwich there (before Atkins) and told Mark about it and he said that when we got new cats, that is one of their names. It fits him. They are actually brothers and just over a year old.

Your house is adorable. However it pales next to your very good selection of kitties and dog. 4 a.m. is the wake up run around time for all cats, I have become convinced over the years.

All those zinfandels are mouthwatering. Have you ever had a chardonnay from Cakebread? I have liked it with certain rich dishes.

Blog on!

Priscilla, thanks for the message. I still have one more dog to show you, he doesn't like getting his picture taken, he'll be 11 on Sunday and is very grouchy, especially with the addition of two cats last year. I can't wait to try the zins, they say that they are "deliciously drinkable now, this wine will soften and gain further complexity over the next 5-7 years". Yes, I have had Cakebread chards. I do like them, we just drink more Reds than Whites, so I changed my club status to red only, since I was getting a ton of Sav. Blancs and Chards that I just didn't drink very often. The friends that got them as gifts appreciated them. I think that I still have a few laying around somewhere in the wine stash. Cakebread Chards though, are probably the only chards that I really like, with a couple of other ones that I have found.

I LOVE Lava Cap's wines! I wish I could find them more often out this way. My sister brought a bottle of their pinot noir for Christmas one year, and it was a rare treat, showing me how wonderful pinto noir can be. I haven't been able to find it since.

What is it about Cakebread's chardonnays that you like? I've pretty much given up on that wine, but maybe there's one out there worth trying.

Animal count presently 3 adult cats, 5 kittens, and a large and boisterous Siberian Husky. I'm so glad to see someone else share the enthusiasm. And isn't it really just the case that cats will wake up at the odd times? I think they do it to make sure we know who's the boss.

Oh, and - well, In-n-Out Burgers are a fine treat. They're even better if someone else is eating them. I may just have to try this low-carb thing, so I can eat In-n-Out without guilt.

I still have one more dog to show you, he doesn't like getting his picture taken, he'll be 11 on Sunday and is very grouchy, especially with the addition of two cats last year.

Now this is inspiring. As someone who is contemplating adding in dogs to 4 cats, one of whom is pretty grouchy already, I can only hope it goes as well.

Cakebread Chards though, are probably the only chards that I really like, with a couple of other ones that I have found.

Yes. There aren't many chardonnays that are even likeable, let alone delicious. Recently we liked a St. Clement as well, so that makes 2.

Priscilla,My poor dog, he's a big dog trapped in a small dogs body. He usually is pretty happy, so I shouldn't say that he's always grouchy, but he really was not happy when Mr. Pickles and Peabody came to live here. They'd want to chase his tail and he'd get mad. There is no way that Mr. Pickles could sit next to Riley while he's eating like he does to Lucy, Riley would be all up in his face to back off. They're getting along better now, they know to pretty much leave him alone. When you see his picture, you'll see that he's really cute. One day I brought him home after a getting a hair cut and that cats (kittens then) didn't recognize him and hissed at him. It was pretty funny. I'll get a cute pic of him tonight. I'll have to keep an eye out for that St. Clements.

Ah, what a great blog.

I LOVE Lava Cap's wines! I wish I could find them more often out this way. My sister brought a bottle of their pinot noir for Christmas one year, and it was a rare treat, showing me how wonderful pinto noir can be. I haven't been able to find it since.

What is it about Cakebread's chardonnays that you like? I've pretty much given up on that wine, but maybe there's one out there worth trying.

Animal count presently 3 adult cats, 5 kittens, and a large and boisterous Siberian Husky. I'm so glad to see someone else share the enthusiasm. And isn't it really just the case that cats will wake up at the odd times? I think they do it to make sure we know who's the boss.

Oh, and - well, In-n-Out Burgers are a fine treat. They're even better if someone else is eating them. I may just have to try this low-carb thing, so I can eat In-n-Out without guilt.

Smithy, you sure have a house full! Husky's are great dogs, my friend has one. As for the Cakebread, it has to be when they set it up before bottling, its just smooth and very good. I'd recommend the Reserve label over the regular label, more costly but if you're looking for a great chard, it can't be beat. That's great you've heard of Lava Cap! I really liked the Barbera last night. They have a good cab too, that sometimes I've found at Costco for 13.99, when they sell it at the winery for 23.99. It's a pretty winery to go to as well. Thanks for reading!

Hello all, just got back from a fairly long day! Mark ended up being really sleepy this morning, so I didn't feel like pestering him to make me eggs and bacon. So what did I have? Leftover cauliflower:

Also my handful of supplements:

After reading Dr. Atkin's book, and having a slow start to losing, I thought maybe I need to try his supplement cocktail. What I am taking is (when I remember that is) 1 Omega 3 3xday, 1 chromium 1xday, 2 Acetyl L-Carnitine 3xday, Q-10 3xday, B vitamin in the morning and multi at lunch. I am good with the morning since I want the B, lunch during the week I am good, since I got one of those old people pill divider by day things that my friend laughed at me about, but night time I usually forget. I would have to say that this combo of supplements may be helping slightly, since I started losing more, that in combo of going of a rx med that could also cause problems.

Lunch today was by myself, so I went to get a Philly Cheesesteak. I've never been to Philadelphia, and would love to go and have an authentic one, but as far as I can tell, these are pretty good. Of course no bun and sometimes I ask for extra meat and extra cheese. This one is called "the works" with peppers, onion and mushrooms. I'll give the lunch probably 8 grams to be safe.

After work, I met up with a co-worker and we had a couple of cocktails (Citron and Soda) and she had ordered all of these appetizers, which I wasn't really hungry for. I had a couple of small pieces of ahi tuna with a really good oniony pepper topping, one fried shrimp (part of it, it had breading) and a few lettuce leaves with dressing. No pictures since my camera battery was dead at that point.

Then I went shopping for some items to make some stuff tomorrow for Thanksgiving. Here's my list:

Any guesses as to what I am making? They aren't all legal atkins stuff, but look great none the less.

My friend is about to come over, the chili smells wonderful...Mark has really outdone himself. We'll watch some Nip Tuck and then I'll be back with some dinner photos.

Peppers are sort of non-standard for a cheesesteak (though they'd be kosher on a cheesesteak hoagie -- yes, there are places that combine the two archetypal Philly sandwiches into a single glorious work), but that does look decent enough.

However: When you make your way to Philly, you should try the true king of Philly sandwiches, the roast pork Italian, with sharp provolone and broccoli rabe. The best in class are served at Tony Luke's in South Philly near the riverfront and DiNic's in the Reading Terminal Market. You might get some funny looks asking for no roll, but you won't faze the counterfolk at all. Then eat a cheesesteak just so you can say you've had one in its birthplace.

Cute highwater bungalow you've got there!

And so far, you're off to a great start with your blog and your diet. We await more tales of love and loss.

Edited because Philly's three iconic sandwiches are served on rolls, not buns.

Peppers are sort of non-standard for a cheesesteak (though they'd be kosher on a cheesesteak hoagie -- yes, there are places that combine the two archetypal Philly sandwiches into a single glorious work), but that does look decent enough.

However: When you make your way to Philly, you should try the true king of Philly sandwiches, the roast pork Italian, with sharp provolone and broccoli rabe. The best in class are served at Tony Luke's in South Philly near the riverfront and DiNic's in the Reading Terminal Market. You might get some funny looks asking for no roll, but you won't faze the counterfolk at all. Then eat a cheesesteak just so you can say you've had one in its birthplace.

Cute highwater bungalow you've got there!

And so far, you're off to a great start with your blog and your diet. We await more tales of love and loss.

Edited because Philly's three iconic sandwiches are served on rolls, not buns.

Thanks Sandy for the tips, I knew I could count on you. If I make to Philly to have the authentic cheesesteak, diet be gone and I'll have the roll!

So the chili that Mark made today was damn good, if I do say so myself. Tons of peppers, hamburger meat, sausage, no beans, I don't really care for them at all. Luckily he doesn't care about that. Here is a picture of the ingredients that he used:

Here's the simmering pot. He was very thoughtful of my friend who doesn't care for the super duper spicy chili, and had a smaller pot just for her.

Here's my bowl all dolled up, I happen to like avocado on my chili, so I hope that's not too weird for some of you:

After watching our show, my friend left, Mark and I took stock in what our day is going to be like tomorrow...we are going to take you on a tour down to Lodi for some wine tasting, so we decided that we better make our pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving, so it can sit in the fridge for a good day. So far it's looking pretty good. I'll post pics when its done. This is a low carbish cheesecake. I did make a graham cracker crust, but probably only used 3 or 4 crackers total for the whole thing. The sugar was replaced with splenda and everything else is legal. The batter tasted okay, so we'll see if it goes over great or fails miserably. I am also making something that may or may not work. Crackers out of sunflower seeds. I have this product called Thick and Thin, Not Starch that had a recipe for mixing ground up nuts with some of this stuff and water. Spread it out in a pan, bake at 400 until set and then 300 until crips. Never tried it before, giving it whirl right now, we'll see it how it goes. Thought it would be good to have with some cheese tomorrow while drinking wine as a snack.

Anyway, I think that I am signing off for tonight, I hope everyone's day went well. I see a pillow in my future.

I also forgot to mention, that I am very excited to have the next 5 days off.

That's a beautiful array of chiles. On top of all the fresh and ground chiles, Mark used two whole habaneros? I gotta say WOW!

Can you give us a run down of all the chiles - I think I see jalapenos, cayennes and a chipotle but I can't be sure. Would be interested in the recipe if you care to share.

Thanks for the message! I think that the habaneros are pickled habaneros that he found in the cupboard. There are jalapenos, pasillas, dried chili, The large dried one I'll need to check on, the red one in the middle is a jalapeno. Basically we brown up ground meat and Italian sausage (one mild and one hot). Then saute onions and the fresh peppers, although he puts in some of the jalapenos later on for a more crunchy flavor. Dump all that into a big pot, add the tomatoes, these boxed kind seem to be very low in carbs, beef broth and spices. Usually we use chili powder (we have several types here), oregano, cumin, salt and pepper. The spices are just to taste. Let it all hang out and then eat. Very good. If you need anything more specific let me know.

Good Morning. It was nice to get a good night's sleep. Our gameplan today is that we are heading out for some breakfast, and then wine tasting in Lodi. I'll get some pictures to share the day with you. The weather is beautiful today, bright blue skies, a perfect day for this sort of thing. It's a little cold out, but hey it's November in California. See you all when we get back.

I'll be really interested in what you have to say about Lodi wines. The place is so doggoned hot in the summer, I have trouble imagining them producing anything better than cheapo-jug wines, like what Gallo made when I was growing up. If the wineries you tour today have anything to say about special considerations for summer heat, I hope you'll include that information.

I'm looking forward to your photos. Blue valley skies can be a wonderful thing, especially if you have to contrast them with the usual Valley tule fog. Have you had much of that yet? There was a humdinger in Fresno a couple of weeks back.

Your food photos are wonderful. I commend the designer on the layout of the raw ingredients! Oh, and avocado on chili looks like a fine idea.